(Corrects to say shareholders in third paragraph of story
originally published Sept. 16.)

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Qatar Islamic Bank, the country’s
biggest Shariah-compliant lender by assets, plans to raise as
much as $750 million by issuing Islamic bonds, its first sale
since 2010.

The Shariah-compliant bank hired HSBC Holdings Plc,
Standard Chartered Plc, QInvest LLC and Deutsche Bank AG to
manage the issuance of at least $500 million of debt, the lender
said at a shareholders’ meeting in Doha today. The securities,
which are known as sukuk and comply with Islam’s ban on
interest, may have maturities of as much as seven years, Ahmad
Meshari, the bank’s acting chief executive officer said today.

The proceeds from the sale will be used for local projects,
the bank said, after shareholders approved a $1.5 billion-sukuk
program. The Doha-based lender last raised $750 million from the
sale of five-year Islamic bonds in September 2010, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.

Islamic bond sales in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation
Council, which includes Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are headed for a
record year after borrowing costs reached lows. Sukuk sales
climbed to $17.7 billion so far this year from $4.8 billion in
the year-earlier period, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.

The average yield on sukuk in the GCC declined two basis
points, or 0.02 of a percentage point, to 3.08 percent on Sept.
14, the lowest on record, the HSBC/NASDAQ Dubai GCC US Dollar
Sukuk Index show.

Qatar Islamic’s first-half profit rose 5 percent to 737
million riyals ($202 million), the lender said July 11. The
bank’s shares have declined 7.5 percent this year to 78 riyals,
compared with a drop of 2 percent for the QE Index.